The minister of Science and Technology, Chief Ogbonnaya Onu has presented to the Federal Executive Council (FEC) in Abuja, a road map on science and technology aimed at taking over most of the gigantic public projects hitherto handled by the foreign experts from them.
The minister, while presenting the road map to FEC at its meeting today, Wednesday at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, regretted that for a long time, Nigerian students had shunned science subjects leading to emptiness in the area that has to do with science.
“We see that our lack of interest in science and technology has resulted in a situation where, if we want to embark on major projects in the country like building a dam, a refinery or airport or seaport, we rely on foreign expertise. When it comes to Science and Technology, many think
that we can’t do it; it has to be done from outside.
“This has created a lot of problems for us as a nation because when you import these things,, you also exporting jobs creating unemployment for our people and put undue pressure on the currency and also aggravating poverty in the nation.
“We decided that this must change; that we must have a science technology roadmap that will take our people beyond where we are now, to prepare Nigeria to be truly great nation where we will have the capacity to use the natural resources we have to meet the needs we have as a nation so that we can become self reliant. That will give us self confidence which we need to be a truly great nation.”
The minister said that in the roadmap, the very rich science and technology heritage of Nigeria as a nation was given much emphasis, adding the nation’s ancestors understood their environment as a result of which they were able to do as much as they did.
“If you take the Benin city walls, it is longer than that of China. We have fine works of arts; we were able to produce iron over 3,000 years ago and today we are unable to have our own iron and steel produced in the country. This is to let our young people know that they have a heritage and they should aspire to be far better than their ancestors.” [myad]
